Real Madrid's players were curiously subdued in their warm up before their defeat at Athletic Bilbao, subdued too when the game started – and not only because they get a famously raucous welcome in the Basque Country.
Madrid had enjoyed a week’s rest. Athletic had rushed back from Barcelona and a frenetic Copa del Rey semi-final tie in the early hours of Thursday morning, but they looked the more refreshed side as their excellent form continued.
Ten weeks after being crowned Fifa club world champions and being heralded by some as the best team on Earth, Madrid are second in the Primera Liga, having collected only one point from their past two matches.
Their five league defeats are as many as in the whole of last season and questions are being asked about manager Carlo Ancelotti’s future.
If all that seems fickle, that is because it is, but the managerial fuse is a short one at the Bernabeu.
The Italian will likely have to win the league or retain the Uefa Champions League to keep his job for a third season – that in itself would be some achievement at a club that has worked its way through 25 coaches in the past 25 years.
There is already talk that reserve team manager Zinedine Zidane will take over next season.
One criticism of Ancelotti is that he has given strikers Javier Hernandez and Jese so few playing opportunities that they are unable to come on and effect a game, as was needed in Bilbao.
Great teams usually come from great squads, but Ancelotti’s side look flat after injuries to Luka Modric and James Rodriguez.
Fringe players can hardly be expected to be adequate replacements when they have barely played.
Ancelotti maintains he knows what the problem is – an attacking one because of their inability to find a breakthrough in recent games.
He claims his side are not efficient in front of goal, play too slowly and hold on to the ball for too long, so that forwards do not have the space.
Watching a disjointed Real Madrid play long balls or deliver poor crosses to their forwards is odd, but every team has a blip.
Madrid’s problem is that they have already had two bad spells this season – and they cannot afford that in a league where the leaders drop so few points.
It is brave of the Italian to blame himself and accept responsibility for the team’s failings.
With the Camp Nou clasico looming, Ancelotti has to get his side playing like the machine they were before Christmas, when Madrid’s famed “BBC” forward line were scoring an average of 2.7 goals per game in the 15 matches before the winter break.
That figure has dropped to 1.2 in the 11 games of 2015.
There is growing demand for Madrid to play a 4-4-2 formation, or with four in midfield, as they did when they won the European Cup last May, but that would mean dropping one of the front three – Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo – which would not please club president Florentino Perez.
Ancelotti has been under pressure before and he rides it well. Only a month before last season’s Champions League final, the sounds coming from Madrid’s media were that he was to be replaced in the summer.
Barcelona took full advantage of Madrid's defeat to Bilbao and are top of the league for the first time since October.
Atletico Madrid’s draw with Valencia consolidates both their positions in the top four, but the chance of Diego Simeone’s side retaining their title are slipping.
They are seven points behind Barcelona with 12 games remaining. Madrid are only a point behind.
The clasico in 11 days time times is crucial for both sides, but it is Madrid who need to recover their mojo.
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